It’s in the beginning weeks of another 8-week challenge event at The Edge Fitness and I had a great start. My weigh-in on kickoff nightrevealed a new low weight since becoming a member; I’m close to dropping below a major milestone. Sometimes, I doubt that number willgo downward for a particular time stepping on the scale. Then I get a surprise when it does in those instances.

I did have a few rough days though recently, feeling under the weather on and off last week. But now that it has passed, I’m back on track tohit my goal of losing another 20 pounds by the end of this challenge.

So, onto more positives, which also brings me back to another point about the kickoff night this time around. The young guy speaking forthe event is an employee from a different Edge Fitness location. He talked about going to the gym, any gym in general and how when youstart to make friends, it’s a lifestyle change, no longer feeling like a chore. I’ve begun to meet people in my group classes and we knoweach other by names. It definitely makes it a lot more fun and inspires me to keep it up.

There’s another aspect I thought of in terms of going to a gym as a lifestyle change. When I go shopping for clothes, I like to look for cute tops and leggings specifically to wear to my exercise classes. I have dropped a size or two at this point and while going to gym of another chain, I still hadn’t lost much weight. I was wearing my most casual, loose-fitting shirts and pull-on pants and couldn’t stand how I looked. Although I see women of all shapes and sizes in more fitted activewear for workouts, I simply didn’t feel confident to do so myself. But I am feeling better now, having lost an amount of weight I thought for so long I’d never lose. Several of my cuter tops are starting to fit more loosely on me now, too.

My left leg tended to have a little swelling in recent years and working out much more regularly has helped to decrease that problem.Some exercises required balance and I think between those and overall physical activity this year, I’ve had another surprising outcome interms of what I wear on my feet. I never was much of a high heels person, mostly because I’d think, “How does someone walk in those,’when I see a woman in stilettos. I imagined myself being a bit wobbly in such shoes. Then, with the swelling I had in my left leg, certain styles of footwear weren’t possible. But now, after the decrease in swelling and better balance, check these out! I’ll have to post some head-to-toe photos donning them later on.

Dining out is still a pain at times, depending on where I go. It seems as though some places just have no healthy options. Recent places I’vebeen to include Season’s Pizza, Cafe Riviera and Ruby Tuesday. Their menus do have healthy dishes, even though I didn’t always order thebest one for sticking to a diet. I also haven’t had a dessert in a long time, however small those choices; that even includes the shot-glass-sized sundae offered at Applebee’s. That’s partly for the purpose of cutting calories, but also because I’ve been too full lately anyway. Applebee’s also has a variety of healthy items on their menu and next time I go there, I’ll post about that as well. Here are a few dishes I’ve had at the other above mentioned restaurants.

The Ultimate Grilled Chicken and a side of sweet potato fries – Season’s Pizza

I ordered this minus the mayo in its description; I’m not big on that condiment anyway. I’ve been skipping fries for the most part, yet will still have the sweet potato version here and there.

Classic Caesar Salad – Cafe Riviera

This could be ordered with grilled chicken, salmon or another option. I don’t usually see salmon for a Caesar salad, so I’ve gone with that choice a few times already. Such a delicious healthy dish, I finished if off and was full; that’s something I haven’t always done with the lettuce part.

Hickory Bourbon Salmon – Ruby Tuesday

One of the menu options with a healthy FT notation, it comes with two sides and as someone who loves mashed potatoes, I’ve skipped that one. Instead, the choices I go for are steamed broccoli and grilled zucchini. Both of these are also marked with the FT symbol and are 60 and 20 calories respectively.

This week at the gym, while using an ab machine, the usual weight I set it at didn’t seem like enough anymore. So, I’ve been working mystomach muscles at one setting higher.

Other recent exercise changes have included using a rower and an elliptical that I describe as having a sort of slider motion. When I would go into the gym theater, I used to hop on a treadmill for 10 to 20 minutes. I’ve come to likeworking out on ellipticals more over time.

As another holiday season approaches, it’ll be the first one in a while that I won’t have difficulty with facing party food. Not onlythat, but winter always tends to be the worst for me in keeping active. I’m just not a winter person and am usually dreading theweather that comes with it. But I feel better going into this year and I think I should try an unusual outdoor sport to celebrate. When I wasan undergraduate, there was a flier posted around campus to announce a snowshoeing adventure. I wanted to go then but it was cancelled to due to very bad wintry conditions. Well, I may not have been in shape enough at the time for that excursion. By the time an opportunity like that comes along, I’ll have completed this second challenge, will becontinuing my usual classes and personal training. I also decided to have two sessions per week with my trainer for the duration of thischallenge. All of that will help me to be ready to take on a trek in the snow. But if not snowshoeing, than I’ll at least go on a few localwinter hikes.

The goal I want to reach is a weight I haven’t been for years. So, I can’t wait to see the outcome when this challenge comes to a close!

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About caroldwyer

A freelance photographer and blogger, I'm also a non-traditional graduate of Cabrini College with a B.A. in communication, minor in English and concentration in film studies. As a student, I was a staff writer, photographer and copy editor for the Loquitur. In my final semester, I assisted in promoting campus literary events for Woodcrest Literary Magazine. I love travel, historic places, nature, wildlife and the arts. I hope to be involved in some way with one of those areas throughout my media career. Currently, I'm pursuing my M.F.A. in creative writing and publishing. Read my film blog at http://cdwyerfilminspired.wordpress.com - and my literary blog at http://cdwyerbookishgrad.wordpress.com